~TAYLOR McKIMENS/DESERT BOY MEETS SNOW !!

THIS IS THE HOLIDAY GREETING TAYOR McKIMENS SENT OUT THIS SEASON. GUESS IT RATED AS THE BEST HOLIDAY GREETING – FROM AN ARTIST – 2007 !!

didn’t post it immediately cause we were waiting on some info from TAYLOR – that never came in – like: where the hell was he & what did all this mean ?

we had heard some buzz on the street that Taylor had left, his Brooklyn haunts (temporarily ? permanently ? – or at least for now ?) to hang out in LONDON, ONTARIO – with his pals – the COMMUNITY OUTREACH (Gallery) crew, in LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA – but no one would confirm anything for publication – Taylor made like someone with real Native American ghosts in his bloodstream – (we’ve heard rumors to that effect) – and left his visual smoke signals to stand as his only communication. the sign on the porch – does say: “THREE BEDROOM FOR RENT “.

and, upon on seeing his new painting coming out of his GALLERI LOYAL show, opening this week in STOCKHOLM – and factoring in the cryptic title: “SWEET DREAMS OF PHOENIX” – we think its a safe bet to say TAYLOR must be spending some time up in CANADA – cause there sure ain’t any snow around here !! not even in BROOKLYN.

But, there’s tons of snow up in Canada – don’t ask how we know – trust me, we just do !!
and it looks to be having a great visual impact on Taylor – who was sprung to life – under the great American South West desert sun – being born in 1976 – and raised in the small, totally art forsaken desert town of WINTERHAVEN, ARIZONA, near the Mexican border.
He once told us the only art he ever saw, or even knew of – growing up, was MAD MAGAZINE, assorted comic books and the GARBAGE PAIL KIDS – !!

One of the things that freaked Taylor out, when he moved to New York – was all the exposure the local kids get here – to all kinds of art – street art, graphic art, exhibition banners of all kinds floating from museum buildings; they really just take it for granted how art bombards them, and how much they really know about art – if they stopped to think about it. – and, we’re not just talking about the ones who get trucked around from DAY ONE – in their new-born baby pouches, and then strollers – to museums and gallery openings. Though I remember Taylor being especially in awe of that class of NYC kid art-know-it-all.
He says all he saw growing up – were cactuses and broken down pick-up trucks. He thought comic books were the beginning – and end all – of visual civilization. Later in his teens, in high school – he thought modern art ended with ANDY WARHOL – cause that’s where any of the old art books he could scare up – ended !

It’s a bit of long story – he entered a commercial – ‘can you draw – we can help you’ – type school – where an inspired instructor luckily saw his talent – and turned him onto the real art world and told him – to go !! After graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California – Taylor hooked up with a young independent curator and artist, RICH JACOBS. Rich Jacobs is pretty well known here in New York, for his brilliant group shows at various venues, (he did that great ‘BALL POINT PEN DRAWING SHOW at CINDERS a year or so, back, and one at FUSE , too) – in the past several years. Though sadly, we have heard that Rich Jacobs recently moved back west. At any rate, back in the day – RICH JACOBS gave Taylor his first break – like he did so many others – by including his work in the ‘MOVE’ series of shows he was then curating at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles, and which led New Image Art – to give Taylor his first solo show in 2001. the rest is history – or will be.
Not sure when Taylor actually moved to New York, but he was included in the Year 2000 exhibit: ‘MOVE FOUR’, RICH JACOBS curated at P.S. 122, in New York. There’s a bio for Taylor on the Gallerie Loyal website – but it just basically lists his shows. It does say he: Lives and Works in New York – so I guess – this stay in Canada – is just as if he went upstate – (like JACKSON POLLOCK went to the {remote} Hamptons w-a-y back in that day), except Taylor had to go a just little bit further north (in this day) – to find some solace and a change in scene.

so, cactus boy – meets snow – that funny cold white stuff that (still) falls copiously in Canada – isn’t it great – how there is always something new to marvel at, and paint about – in this crazy, one could say, self-destroying – world of ours !! Good luck with your show, and opening tonight, wish we could be there to see it – from all of your your friends back here, in NYC.